The Ducks took Saturday morning off presumably to rest up for an evening contest against the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center. Having already played the most games in the NHL, the club had a full workout here Friday following games on back-to-back nights in Washington and Long Island.

But we at Ducks Blog try our best to keep the content fresh during an occasional lull. A main topic that came out of the loss to the Islanders was the Ducks hoping to get back on the beam and not let the defeat stretch past tonight's contest against Hurricanes.

Before the defeat, the Ducks were on an upswing in a streaky season with four wins in five games and a 7-2-1 record since their six-game drought (0-4-2) from Nov. 14-26.

"The way we've been playing lately is the way we've wanted to play," winger Corey Perry said Thursday in the visitors' dressing room of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "Tonight is just a little bump in the road. We put this one behind us and star thinking about Carolina. That's where we go next.

"It's one where those things happen in a season. You can't let it continue."

The Ducks were burned by a bad first period where mistakes led to goals in a 99-second span by P.A. Parenteau, Blake Comeau and Matt Moulson. Curtis McElhinney started in goal to give Jonas Hiller a night off but that was scrapped as McElhinney couldn't survive the quick onslaught.

Left wing Jason Blake, who had a goal and an assist, said there was no excuse for their horrific start but that it was time to move past it.

"Obviously, things have been very positive around here," said Blake, who broke a nine-game pointless streak. "You want to keep moving forward though. Things like this are going to happen. We just got to forget about it.

"We've got three more games left on this road trip. "We've got take one at a time and be ready for the next one."

Collectively, the Ducks recognized that facing the NHL-worst Islanders was a prime opportunity to gain more points, especially since every other team but Chicago has at least four games in hand on them (the Kings and Vancouver each have six).

"It's definitely an opportunity lost," said Joffrey Lupul, who also had a goal and an assist. "What can you do now? There's no use complaining about it after that. ... We've got three games left on the trip. There's still an opportunity."

The Ducks largely controlled the game after those first 20 minutes and while they made it a game in the third period, there were many other scoring opportunties broken up by Islanders getting their sticks on passes or displaying a willingness to block shots.

Rookie defenseman Cam Fowler said those two periods of pressure reflected the kind of team he believes it is.

"I think it just shows us that when we're moving our feet and when we're competing, [it's] the kind of hockey club we can be," Fowler said. "We just need to learn that we can't come out and have a start like that, especially on the road. You need to get in and just play a boring road game and keep it simple.

"Unfortunately we left Mac out to dry in the first period. He didn't really have any help. We just got to learn from that and keep on moving forward."

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